Thursday, October 02, 2008

Illegal Immigration is a crime? By Michael Vargas

How many times do you hear that Illegals are Criminals? I assured you thousands times and probably you hear from people, and politicians distinguished themselves from others from being educated.Well, On my understanding; Citizens and Non Citizens have and deserve a Human and Civil Rights then how come politicians, Anti Immigrants, Xenophobics and Nativists are so ignorant of the Law?

If I used the word illegal on my blog is not because I like that word. I totally condemned to be used and labeled to Undocumented Immigrants for political purpose, journalists ratings, and for personal gains. For me There is no such an Illegal Human being period.

And That is a real proof of racial panic: being in the U.S. illegally is "a low-level federal misdemeanor punishable by up to six months in jail and/or a fine of $50 to $250" "unlawful presence" is a civil, not criminal, offense. Why then do some people argue for everything from shooting them to mass deportations? Especially since most are law-abiding apart from their immigration status.See the classification and understanding of Title 8, Section 1325 under U.S. Code which does subject the Civil penalties but not as a CRIME.

Which determine under the civil rights of any Individual that any charges against the defendants are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty . Meaning that you cannot be held against your will without just cause. To put it another way, you cannot be jailed if there are no charges against you. If you are being held, and you demand it, the courts must issue a writ of habeas corpus, which forces those holding you to answer as to why. If there is no good or compelling reason, the court must set you free. It is important to note that of all the civil liberties we take for granted today as a part of the Bill of Rights, the importance of habeas corpus is illustrated by the fact that it was the sole liberty thought important enough to be included in the original text of the Constitution.

Section 1325. Improper entry by alien (Foreigner)

(a) Improper time or place; avoidance of examination or inspection;misrepresentation and concealment of facts

Any alien (Foreigner) who (1) enters or attempts to enter the United Statesat any time or place other than as designated by immigrationofficers,or (2) eludes examination or inspection by immigrationofficers,

or (3) attempts to enter or obtains entry to the UnitedStates by a willfully false or misleading representation or thewillful concealment of a material fact, shall, for the firstcommission of any such offense, be fined under title 18 orimprisoned not more than 6 months, or both, and, for a subsequentcommission of any such offense, be fined under title 18, orimprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.

(b) Improper time or place; civil penalties

Any alien (Foreigner)who is apprehended while entering (or attempting toenter) the United States at a time or place other than asdesignated by immigration officers shall be subject to a civilpenalty of -

(1) at least $50 and not more than $250 for each such entry (orattempted entry); or

(2) twice the amount specified in paragraph (1) in the case ofan alien who has been previously subject to a civil penalty underthis subsection.

Civil penalties under this subsection are in addition to, and notin lieu of, any criminal or other civil penalties that may beimposed.

(c) Marriage fraud

Any individual who knowingly enters into a marriage for thepurpose of evading any provision of the immigration laws shall beimprisoned for not more than 5 years, or fined not more than$250,000, or both.

(d) Immigration-related entrepreneurship fraud

Any individual who knowingly establishes a commercial enterprisefor the purpose of evading any provision of the immigration lawsshall be imprisoned for not more than 5 years, fined in accordancewith title 18, or both.

What's most disturbing, and the largest indicator that America concerns are really racist rather than a concern about immigration, is the amount of hostility there is towards Hispanics and Latinos regardless of whether they are here legally (and I must respectfully and completely disagree with one of my friends on this-- no, you cannot "tell" who is Undocumented just by how they look/act/speak). There is a bunch of hypocrites on our society specially the Nativists, Extremists and Minutemen Members. What really gets me is how these minutemen stand around Home Depot protesting day laborers and calling them "illegals" when they really have no clue who is "legal" or not. If that's not racist and racial profiling I don't know what is. I will said asks, "Why do ICE agents wear bulletproof vests and full combat gear when they go on these raids? [of factories, etc., whose employees may be Undocumented Immigrants]... most of the time they are facing terrified civilian factory workers or illegal tenement dwellers who know their lives are about to be uprooted and are trembling in their pants, holding on to their babies or looking to run away. Have their been any recorded instances at all of undocumented workers standing and fighting these armored Squad Teams?"

What really struck me, is the exact parallels to immigrant-phobia in earlier periods of US history. The exact same complaints were made about the Italians, the Irish, the Germans, the Chinese and, yes, the Jews. During WWII, we turned away Jewish refugees, including the infamous "ship of the damned" incident-- for same fears-- they carried disease, spoke another language, and would steal all our jobs. I'm not making this up-- look up some periodicals from those time periods. And for those who argue that those Jews were fleeing in fear of their lives (I have to say, for some their had had to escape to America illegally, I wouldn't have begrudged them that opportunity!), while the Hispanics are just lazy... do you have any idea what Hispanics, Latinos from South Americans go through to get here? Apart from the basic threat to their lives, that is... Families torn apart, people giving up every cent and everything they've ever known on their entire life... people don't do anything like that know on days. They do it because they know it's the only reason their children will have a decent chance and a better life. Would you risk your life for your Family?.

And to finalize this argument Crime is statistically lower among Undocumented than among citizens, The FBI report that in 2007, the Violent crime dropped 1.4 percent overall compared to 2006, reversing a two-year up tick. That includes decreases in all four offense, Property crime declined 2.1 percent from 2006, with decreases in each city grouping. Arson—tracked separately from other property crimes—also fell 7.0 percent from 2006; despite gang problems. When crime rates rose in country along with an immigration wave, they did not rise where the immigrants were, but in other places. This makes sense if you think about it. These people have come hundred of miles and risked everything to get here. Are they going to draw attention to themselves and risk getting thrown back out? Of course not. It was a problem of growing gang activity among particularly the teenagers of legal immigrant families and second generations. What do you expect? They're adjusting to a new culture where they're not particularly welcome. Much of our fear is due to disproportionate reporting. Anything good done by Undocumented is ignored, while any crime committed even by Hispanic citizens is seen as reason to limit immigration. God Bless America. The Salad Bowl.!!!!!!!!

2 comments:

Total spending on justice – including police, courts, and prisons – by all levels of government was $185 billion in 20003, up more than 400 percent from 1982, a growth rate sixteen times greater than the rate of increase in the population. This impact can be attributed directly to immigration and the dramatic increase since 1986.

Given that there are more than 36 million immigrants, and they are disproportionately young, single men, they will inevitably have a large presence in the criminal justice system and create large costs. This is all the more a concern, given research that finds the likelihood of an immigrant being incarcerated grows with longer residence in the United States and that the U.S. born children of immigrants are dramatically more likely to be involved in crime than their immigrant parents. For instance, native born Hispanic male high school dropouts are eleven times more likely to be incarcerated than their foreign born counterparts.

The costs at the federal consist of expenses incurred housing aliens in federal prisons plus the grants made under the State Criminal Alien Assistance program (SCAAAP), which reimburses certain states and localities for a small part of the costs they incur when incarcerating certain illegal aliens. About one quarter of federal prisoners are aliens, and when combined with the reimbursement program the Government Accountability Office estimates they cost the federal government nearly $6 billion for 2001-2004. The amount would have been larger had Congress not consistently cut the SCAAP program, narrowing its scope (now only those illegals held four days or more can qualify) and cutting the number of cents on the dollar it reimbursed.

There are some estimates of state costs for illegal aliens: New York was estimated to have spent $165 million, Florida $60 million, Texas $150 million, California $1.4 billion and Arizona $80 million. As large as the costs are, they include only prison costs, not jail costs (prisons hold offenders for more than one year, jails are the local facilities where people are kept for shorter periods of time), nor the costs incurred by police or the courts, nor the monetary loses suffered by the victims. At least as important is the fact that these estimates count the incarceration only of illegal aliens, not the rest of the immigrant population.

1.- You mentioned that Immigrants are more likely to become unlawful or criminals? Wrong. check the FBI REPORT were stated by statistics and clearly demostrated that crime does not reflect on ethnicity, race or color.

2.-You said estimates. How do you know that is not an inflated number? How they can determine any person is Undocumented or not? The Federal Goverment do not know the total amount of Undocumented Immigrants in America. How do you think they got those numbers? The perfect example of Goverment incompetency on numbers. The Bail out were offer $ 7OO Billions and Congress ask. How do you know that is the right number? Mr. Paulson said: I just guessing. Hyprocrisy is not a family value. get acurate numbers and information do not go by the Anti's, Xenophobics and Extremist because you losing a great fundamental value: Education; so I encourage you to fulfill yourselves ther proper learning of knowledge, proper conduct, and technical competency as well I will try to learn communication skills with humanistic and warm "emotional intelligence".

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Welcome to my blog of Pro Inmigrant

I Started this blog because the frustration, confrontation and division creating by xenophobics against minorities.Some have eyes but cannot see,""Some have tongues but cannot speak the truth.They have ears but can't hear.That's where the problem is."It will be some controversial issues but true hurts.This is a Non-Profit Blog . Humanity is priceless

About Me

Once a government is committed to the principle of silencing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.
The greatest threat facing America today is not terrorism, or foreign economic competition, or immigration. The greatest threat facing America today is the disastrous fiscal policies of our own government, marked by shameless deficit spending and Federal Reserve currency devaluation.
In my fight for Equal Justice
I am not a Republican
-I am not a Democrat
-I am not an Independent
-I am an Mexican American.
And refuse to fall for false reassurances and the tempting comforts of ignorance,
To contribute my voice in outrage, when others are forced into silence,
To speak the truth as I find it.

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